[11] Champion

I think that 740 for SC6 is really not that bad, especially considering the game doesn't have a world tour, from this point it can only go forward. But the game need to have more content and updates in the future. (More DLC characters, stages, and a SC world tour would be great too)

I think 740 is pretty bad. Usually entry numbers are highest when a game is new and then slowly drop as the game gets older. There are only a few big games that have bucked this trend (Tekken, for example).

The fact that SC's numbers as so low this early in its life suggests that it will have a short competitive lifespan.

[08] Mercenary

I think 740 is pretty bad. Usually entry numbers are highest when a game is new and then slowly drop as the game gets older. There are only a few big games that have bucked this trend (Tekken, for example).

The fact that SC's numbers as so low this early in its life suggests that it will have a short competitive lifespan.

Meh, I mean if you ask me for a franchise that's been wounded time and time again its actually impressive.
Obviously I'd hope and love the numbers to be higher though, I can only hope as updates come etc that they do and it attracts more people.

[14] Master

I think 740 is pretty bad. Usually entry numbers are highest when a game is new and then slowly drop as the game gets older. There are only a few big games that have bucked this trend (Tekken, for example).

The fact that SC's numbers as so low this early in its life suggests that it will have a short competitive lifespan.

This is actually the highest number entrance for any SC in Evo, so that's alone is actually great news.

You made a point tho, usually numbers drop but as we see T7 got better each year, so if T7 did it, i don't know why SC6 can't do it, especially since SC6 is still a non very mature game with the vanilla effect, the game is very good but still so many things can be add and/or improve, but i'll say that if Cassandra will be the last thing SC6 will have i won't put high bet on SC6 getting stronger in the long run, i mean obviously. There is just no way SC6 can grow without support, and that's not just for SC6 but for any fighting game. But if it will get a huge season 2 update like SF4>SSF4 or T7>>T7FR the game can only get better by this point and will have more potential for growth later down the line. Of course PS need to make changes to make the game more appealing to more people? what kind of changes? since i don't own the absolute truth, but i gave (like many others) my wishilist opinion and feedback on this in my wishlist/feedback wesbsite.

[06] Combatant

Soulcalibur: Smooth gameplay with the fantastic 8 way run system.

Tekken: Plays like the characters are wading through jello. Slow, clunky.

Welp, fighting games will never expand beyond Smash, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, because gamers are sheep that only invest themselves in a few franchises with 'Brand Name Recognition', and never give anything new a chance (even when the new stuff is objectively better in every way). 'New franchises' that do well ride the coattails of popular devs who make them similar enough to an already popular franchise they've done (The Last of Us, Cyberpunk, and Death Stranding). Or a new dev comes along and fills the void a finished franchise left behind with a blatant clone (Under Birth).

A world where we get a new Darkstalkers game (a franchise with far more unique, engaging characters than Street Fighter and a fantastic horror motif) is nothing but a distant dream. Capcom could revemp the series to win over a new audience, but they (rightfully) don't trust gamers to buy anything that isn't one of 3 franchises they already know about. Because of this, Capcom will forever be Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and DMCom.

I know I'm going to get bashed, because this is a forum for the 'hardcore fighting game community' and they care more about the 'technicals' of a game than actual fun gameplay, and I dared to bash the most boring, overly technical fighting game ever.

[09] Warrior

Meh, I mean if you ask me for a franchise that's been wounded time and time again its actually impressive.
Obviously I'd hope and love the numbers to be higher though, I can only hope as updates come etc that they do and it attracts more people.

While that may be the case recently, I have high hopes the game will get continued support and more content drops because it sold well during the Steam Summer Sale. It sold as the second highest purchased figting game, so that should translate to many new players that should improve the online with fresh players right up until Evo.

[08] Mercenary

I think 740 is pretty bad. Usually entry numbers are highest when a game is new and then slowly drop as the game gets older. There are only a few big games that have bucked this trend (Tekken, for example).

The fact that SC's numbers as so low this early in its life suggests that it will have a short competitive lifespan.

This is actually the highest number entrance for any SC in Evo, so that's alone is actually great news.

You made a point tho, usually numbers drop but as we see T7 got better each year, so if T7 did it, i don't know why SC6 can't do it, especially since SC6 is still a non very mature game with the vanilla effect, the game is very good but still so many things can be add and/or improve, but i'll say that if Cassandra will be the last thing SC6 will have i won't put high bet on SC6 getting stronger in the long run, i mean obviously. There is just no way SC6 can grow without support, and that's not just for SC6 but for any fighting game. But if it will get a huge season 2 update like SF4>SSF4 or T7>>T7FR the game can only get better by this point and will have more potential for growth later down the line. Of course PS need to make changes to make the game more appealing to more people? what kind of changes? since i don't own the absolute truth, but i gave (like many others) my wishilist opinion and feedback on this in my wishlist/feedback wesbsite.

I think you're both correct, but as to SSfox's point, unfortunately I don't see Namco giving the level of support the game needs to get over that hurdle. Maybe they have big plans in the form of cards they are playing close to the vest, but the game would need so much to rescue it from the slump it seems to be falling towards as we get closer to the one-year mark--indeed, we're only just now passing the nine-month mark, and things are already looking a little grim. Namco attempted to thread the needle on reboot and doing things on the budget, and it shows. If their aim was to make the game marginally successful and keep the franchise on life-support for the time being, I'd say they were successful. If the hope was that the game would bring the franchise genuinely closer to its former glory, I'd say they miscalculated and under-invested.

The game just needs more work than can be supplied by season passes at this point, I think--it's a kind of catch-22 feedback loop here: the game's popularity is hurt by it feeling under-complete, and this situation could be addressed by multiple season passes, but the season passes themselves are only viable if they are at least marginally profitable,* and their profitability is hurt by the fact the lack of popularity of the game as it stands. Short of a huge influx of further development commitments, which Namco aggressively advertises (which, I just don't see happening, in either respect), I think SCVI is on a downward spiral. At least the game is marginally more popular with SCV, though--so hopefully the next mainline entry gets proper support and a real budget. Gonna be a bit of wait thought.

* Normally it would need to be much more than marginally profitable in order to compete with other project priorities within Namco, but I think that they are so keen to get the continuing support/season pass model established for their fighters, they will do at least a season two, even if the projected profit margin looks thin. Unfortunately, this game needs more than just one extra season pass to flesh out everything that was absent or lackluster at launch.

While I agree with a number of your other points in that post, I'm not sure this is a fair criticism. Darkstalkers has essentially been merged into Marvel vs. Capcom, with most of its handful of characters appearing in the last couple of entries in that franchise. And I just don't think it had the legs to compete as its own IP: the last console version of the series was released over twenty years ago, and its style was always pretty cartoonish, even by Marvel fighter standards: reviving it as a profitable independent property for current markets would be a longshot even if Capcom were willing to role the dice.

Honestly, I do think there's more than enough room for more than the four properties you mentioned (indeed, I have some tentative hopes that we're about to enter a renaisance for the fighter genre, on account of the viability of continuing support models). And I think Soulcalibur still has the name brand recognition to return as one of the giants. Thing is, Namco needs to decide that it's going to genuinely make that push. The last two games have not lived up the franchise standards for both the amount of content and the level of quality of said content. Significant portions of SCVI were outsourced to third parties and the entire thing was clearly made with one eye firmly fixed on a budget and short development lifecycle for the base game. And I need not repeat to anyone here why SCV was ill-received for similar reasons. Until Namco treats the series as one with the potential to be a blockbuster, it won't stand a chance of getting there. I do not believe the primary reason that this particular series is not doing well has much to do with undiscerning consumers. Rather, I think the wounds upon SC's popularity and sales are a self-inflicted consequence of Namco's approach to the games.

While that may be the case recently, I have high hopes the game will get continued support and more content drops because it sold well during the Steam Summer Sale. It sold as the second highest purchased figting game, so that should translate to many new players that should improve the online with fresh players right up until Evo.

Well, let's look at what that means from all context: the game 1) came in second, 2) in just one genre, 3) in one sale, on 4) just one platform, which 5) is by far its least profitable platform. I'm not saying it's nothing--we have to take every sign of good news that we can at this juncture--but I wouldn't take that as particularly good evidence that SCVI is maintaining a huge market share: the factors for its performance in that one sale make it too niche to make any concrete predictions on broader trends. I personally think that Namco would be smart to put the game on sale on consoles for a while just after the first season pass finishes, and again just before the second season first drops. But we'll see!

[11] Champion

Tekken: Plays like the characters are wading through jello. Slow, clunky.

Welp, fighting games will never expand beyond Smash, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, because gamers are sheep that only invest themselves in a few franchises with 'Brand Name Recognition', and never give anything new a chance (even when the new stuff is objectively better in every way).

[14] Master

Tekken: Plays like the characters are wading through jello. Slow, clunky.

Welp, fighting games will never expand beyond Smash, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, because gamers are sheep that only invest themselves in a few franchises with 'Brand Name Recognition', and never give anything new a chance (even when the new stuff is objectively better in every way). 'New franchises' that do well ride the coattails of popular devs who make them similar enough to an already popular franchise they've done (The Last of Us, Cyberpunk, and Death Stranding). Or a new dev comes along and fills the void a finished franchise left behind with a blatant clone (Under Birth).

A world where we get a new Darkstalkers game (a franchise with far more unique, engaging characters than Street Fighter and a fantastic horror motif) is nothing but a distant dream. Capcom could revemp the series to win over a new audience, but they (rightfully) don't trust gamers to buy anything that isn't one of 3 franchises they already know about. Because of this, Capcom will forever be Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and DMCom.

I know I'm going to get bashed, because this is a forum for the 'hardcore fighting game community' and they care more about the 'technicals' of a game than actual fun gameplay, and I dared to bash the most boring, overly technical fighting game ever.

You don't seem to like much Tekken, Tekken is awesome and i won't go to argue about that with you, if you don't like Tekken that's on you, but i will tell that as much as a name can sell, but a name cannot make people like a game and play it and watching it for hundreds/thousands or more of hours.

Also Tekken name was strong and huge in the first 3 Tekken games era, especially with Tekken 3, but it wasn't that strong before Tekken 7 because TTT2 was a commercial fail, and why do you think they used Akuma as a Marketing tool heavily for Tekken 7 before coming to console? Gotcha.

And Mortal Kombat isn't that big in competitive, usually it's do high at first year then drastically decrease. At least it was the case for MK9 and X, things can change with MK11 but time will tell. SamSho is actually higher at Evo than MK even tho it don't come close to MK11 when it comes to "name strenght/popularity" and sales.

I think you're both correct, but as to SSfox's point, unfortunately I don't see Namco giving the level of support the game needs to get over that hurdle. Maybe they have big plans in the form of cards they are playing close to the vest, but the game would need so much to rescue it from the slump it seems to be falling towards as we get closer to the one-year mark--indeed, we're only just now passing the nine-month mark, and things are already looking a little grim. Namco attempted to thread the needle on reboot and doing things on the budget, and it shows. If their aim was to make the game marginally successful and keep the franchise on life-support for the time being, I'd say they were successful. If the hope was that the game would bring the franchise genuinely closer to its former glory, I'd say they miscalculated and under-invested.

The game just needs more work than can be supplied by season passes at this point, I think--it's a kind of catch-22 feedback loop here: the game's popularity is hurt by it feeling under-complete, and this situation could be addressed by multiple season passes, but the season passes themselves are only viable if they are at least marginally profitable,* and their profitability is hurt by the fact the lack of popularity of the game as it stands. Short of a huge influx of further development commitments, which Namco aggressively advertises (which, I just don't see happening, in either respect), I think SCVI is on a downward spiral. At least the game is marginally more popular with SCV, though--so hopefully the next mainline entry gets proper support and a real budget. Gonna be a bit of weight thought.

* Normally it would need to be much more than marginally profitable in order to compete with other project priorities within Namco, but I think that they are so keen to get the continuing support/season pass model established for their fighters, they will do at least a season two, even if the projected profit margin looks thin. Unfortunately, this game needs more than just one extra season pass to flesh out everything that was absent or lackluster at launch.

Time will tell on how much things will evolve. Of course as you said Bamco need to find it profitable to themselves so they will put money and energy on it. Also since few years ago Bamco didn't believed much about Tekken potential success and future, and now it end quite good and way beyond any of their expectations, so maybe for Soul Calibur they will reconsider things twice before making a decision. But of course there's no guarantee that SC will become big but i think that if they make the right choices for the serie and take the right direction i fully believe SC can become one of the biggest fighting game in all aspects (so sales and compet side).

PS:I think that Soul Calibur first was that kind of game that could have hit the 5 millions copies if it was release on a very popular console like PS2 back then.

EDIT: Something i would like to add about Mortal Kombat, i was just thinking about it and i really think (and for sure most people too) that the 1995 movie helped a lot to popularize the franchise and make as part of POP culture. So y'know Bamco, you can take notes from that if you wish.

EDIT2: Also don't forget that MK was in a trash state before MK9, so it's a thing now because they started doing it right since MK9, and same for SF that wasn't a thing after SF2 and before SF4 where the game wasn't that big, and actually meanwhile SC was one of the biggest games during this time, mostly the glorious SC2, for obvious reasons we talked many time about.

Premium Member

Welp, fighting games will never expand beyond Smash, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, because gamers are sheep that only invest themselves in a few franchises with 'Brand Name Recognition', and never give anything new a chance

[08] Mercenary

Something i would like to add about Mortal Kombat, i was just thinking about it and i really think (and for sure most people too) that the 1995 movie helped a lot to popularize the franchise and make as part of POP culture. So y'know Bamco, you can take notes from that if you wish.

I think you might be wrong about that. Although it's certainly experienced a revival (because of the MK9 reboot you discussed), MK's real heyday was the first three games, which all came before the movie. It already had a massive amount of attention resulting from the first three games because they were arcade staples and because the franchise gimmick of being super gorey pushed the limits of what was acceptable in a game--and the silly backlash against it made it all the more popular with teenagers (because sometimes an effort to create a moral panic over a non-issue has the paradoxical effect of making the thing you wanted to censure even more popular).

It was actually around the time that the movie came out that the series began a slow but steady decline. I don't think that's really on account of the movie so much as franchise fatigue and a failure to keep the series fresh, but if I had to guess, I'd say the movie did more damage than good to the brand: while we may be able to appreciate it as a "so bad it's good" film, it was roasted by critics at the time, and has hardly aged into a classic. I mean, let's be honest, no movie based on the Mortal Kombat mythology was ever going to be Othello, but still...

Also don't forget that MK was in a trash state before MK9, so it's a thing now because they started doing it right since MK9, and same for SF that wasn't a thing after SF2 and before SF4 where the game wasn't that big, and actually meanwhile SC was one of the biggest games during this time, mostly the glorious SC2, for obvious reasons we talked many time about.

[04] Fighter

SC6 is doing its best to stretch out its life span, that's why it's being so shtum about dlc, because devs (understandably) want there to be an even flow of content over the years instead of blowing their load in the first year.

Expect more braindead waifu characters as dlc, because that's what sells (and fair enough if it does).

I personally think that the outright pornography that is the character design is sliiightly off putting to a western audience. This is my (humble) opinion, and it's not to say that other games dont have sexuality, it's just that SC really takes it far. Imagine this level of sexuality in tekken (cleavage, jiggle physics, upskirts, etc etc). It has happened in tekken, but at least some characters are spared. In SC barely a single female cast member is spared this fate.

[08] Mercenary

SC6 is doing its best to stretch out its life span, that's why it's being so shtum about dlc, because devs (understandably) want there to be an even flow of content over the years instead of blowing their load in the first year.

Expect more braindead waifu characters as dlc, because that's what sells (and fair enough if it does).

I personally think that the outright pornography that is the character design is sliiightly off putting to a western audience. This is my (humble) opinion, and it's not to say that other games dont have sexuality, it's just that SC really takes it far. Imagine this level of sexuality in tekken (cleavage, jiggle physics, upskirts, etc etc). It has happened in tekken, but at least some characters are spared. In SC barely a single female cast member is spared this fate.

Hilde does tend to get modest and reasonably practical looking armor--well, not that armor is really effective in the Soulcalibur universe: it might as well be considered a fashion choice for all the effect it has on whether or not a sword slams straight through your torso. Good thing everyone has instant fatal wound healing at a level to make Wolverine say "Ok, that's a bit hard to swallow."

Anyway, I'm not sure I would call the over-sexualization "off-putting" so much as just tediously silly and infantile. But that's pretty much everything about the style of the series, so mostly I don't even notice it, as it just blends in with everything else in the series that gaudy and over-the-top. Then again, for SCIV, SCV and SC:LS, the advertising campaigns were pretty tasteless and pandering as regards the salacious fan service, to a degree that was sufficient to make me remember "Oh yeah, they are completely shameless about the objectification of women's bodies aren't they?" Because again, otherwise it all just tends to blend into the background for me; when you've been watching Ivy parade around in fetish wear for 20+ years, you just begin to take it for granted that this is how the Soulcalibur universe works, and you never think about it. Then they take out a full-page add in major publications that is nothing but her tits, and you have two simultaneous thoughts: 1) Really? Namco thinks the majority of its fans are still 14 year old boys, even though the series itself is 25 years old? And, 2) I don't usually think about it, but I'd have a tough time explaining my love of these games to other adults as something to not be embarrassed about, if they weren't gamers and didn't understand that great gameplay can make you forget about nearly all of the other shortcomings of a game as a work of art, no matter how silly or tasteless it is (and SC tips the scales on both at times).

But for me it's not just that I think it can all be a little immature: I just hate impractical outfits, frankly--especially in a story that is supposed to be about people engaging in combat. I can often tell whether I am going to like a Japanese game or anime just by looking at the costume design and seeing how grounded it is: both 1) scantily clad female warriors and 2) those who are wearing too much clothing (that has bizarre folds and frills and stoles, and fabric hanging off in unlikely geometric patterns) break my ability to suspend disbelief and immerse myself in the narrative world. Because if you can't even get the clothing to a realistic state where it seems like it suits its designed purpose in a way that makes sense, I can't have much faith that you got anything else much better. Saying "it's fantasy" only gets you so far--even in a fantasy world I expect some basic pragmatic considerations to be treated in a well-thought-out manner. Soulcalibur is kind of hit and miss in this regard, especially when you factor in CaS. You can forgive the outfits being anachronistic or not fitting the culture they are supposed to represent or being more skimpy than social mores in that era would allow for: nothing about the SC universe matches up even remotely with real history, so why should the clothing? But some of the clothing and equipment nevertheless manages to feel rooted in reality nonetheless, while other other outfits are just plain silly. Then there's ZWEI, who, true fact, is such a potent anime version of a fuckboy that he can transmit herpes directly to your eyeballs if you look at his design for too long.

[09] Warrior

It was actually around the time that the movie came out that the series began a slow but steady decline. I don't think that's really on account of the movie so much as franchise fatigue and a failure to keep the series fresh, but if I had to guess, I'd say the movie did more damage than good to the brand...

Actually they made MK way too "fresh" after MK3 by gradually going 3D instead of 2D (MK4 had clunky sidesteps, but still mostly played as a 2D fighter, also the next game, Deadly Alliance, went full 3D with its mechanics). Additionally they went crazy with controls, giving each character different types of attacks bind to the same buttons with no rhyme or reason (so for example Sub Zero would have kicks bind to X and [], but at the same time for Scorpion his X and [] would be punches), also every character got multiple styles/stances with inconsistent controls within those to make things even worse. Also let's not forget how they changed half of the roster, populating it with trash characters nobody liked such as Hsu Hao, Kobra, Drahmin, Mavado, Moloch and so on.
MK got back on track with MK9 exactly because MK9 was a return to the classic formula: 2D gameplay and MK1-3 era roster everyone actually liked.

[08] Mercenary

Actually they made MK way too "fresh" after MK3 by gradually going 3D instead of 2D (MK4 had clunky sidesteps, but still mostly played as a 2D fighter, also the next game, Deadly Alliance, went full 3D with its mechanics). Additionally they went crazy with controls, giving each character different types of attacks bind to the same buttons with no rhyme or reason (so for example Sub Zero would have kicks bind to X and [], but at the same time for Scorpion his X and [] would be punches), also every character got multiple styles/stances with inconsistent controls within those to make things even worse. Also let's not forget how they changed half of the roster, populating it with trash characters nobody liked such as Hsu Hao, Kobra, Drahmin, Mavado, Moloch and so on.
MK got back on track with MK9 exactly because MK9 was a return to the classic formula: 2D gameplay and MK1-3 era roster everyone actually liked.

Yikes, that does sound awful. You have to understand that I was never much of an MK aficionado--the style of gameplay and design just wasn't my cup of tea. Just a little bit trying too hard to be "badass" on the style side and the movement was too constricted for me, even for a 2D game; I always felt like I was battling with a mannequin. Then again, I loved Killer Instinct when it came around, and though it did some unique things, its clear that no single franchise in fighting game history has more taken a page from the book of another series than KI did with regard to MK. So go figure! Anyway, I played maybe a little but of each entry, because my gamer friends were mostly fans of fighters first, and there always seemed to be someone with a copy, even in the slump years (4-8). But I have become decently competent with Injustice 1 and 2, so I feel like I have a decent idea of how contemporary MK games play, and I don't mind it so much now--it actually kind of feels like it suits the comic book characters quite nicely (I'm not a fan of comics so much, but I do, like anyone appreciate that Superman or Wonder Woman's hits should land with some weight, and that's what I feel when I play those games.

Personally, I don't think there would have been any problem with them ditching the "jiggle physics" and making the outfits (just barely) less gaudy/exposing/fanservice-ish. The problem is that they did this immediately after the trade show (or was it a tourney?) presentation that they got so much flack for. Their messaging after that could have been welcomed as an indication that the studio was growing and evolving, and getting with the times, but what they had to say about their "core values" was way out of whack with what we saw in that "skit", and also (not for nothing) the way they have designed and marketed the series since forever. So to my mind, the changes the series have undergone are certainly for the better, and I can't imagine what the priorities are of anyone who would jump ship because the breasts are less jiggly and the bikinis that "cover" them show 40% skin as opposed to 80%. But I can understand why some fans feel like they got messaging whiplash from the whole affair:

Phase one: "Teeheehee, look at the titties bounce. Here, we got you some softcore porn for the stage, to demonstrate! Because this is 1995, right?"

Phase two: We would like to apologize for the forgoing gratuitous display of prurient behaviour. This is not who we are as a company: please accept our assertions that this not how we want to operate going forward [by ignoring the last twenty years of games where we consistently refused to be beat by anyone in the industry when it came to objectifying the female body, and cashing in on the most blatant and pandering display of fan service this side of Eiken through absurdly priced costume skins clearly targeting desperately hormonal boys and desperately socially dysfunctional men, plus an entire sub-series that is made of games entirely composed of ultra-condensed fan service, in case the stripperiffic outfits and animated shorts featuring close-ups of T&A in the main games weren't doing it for you].

Phase three: We dropped the jiggle physics! It's all very tasteful now. ...But you can still totally put them in a nightie or a bikini whenever you want to play dress up with your digital sex dolls. But no jiggling titties! We are so woke!

I mean, on the one hand, maybe I should be glad the series is maturing at all. I really loved that series once upon time, before its marketplace strategies got so ridiculous I stopped buying them out of frustration. Maybe if it ditches the fan service, some of the content practices will improve as a consequence. It's arguably the second best 3D fighter franchise now that Virtua Fighter is defunct. But it's hard to not feel that their current issues, with their fanbase turning on them, is kind of a prison of their own making. They spent years feeding that monster and then milking it for cash. It kind of feels like just desserts that they went too far, tried to scale it back (but only superficially, so as to try to play to both sides of the divide over the fan service), accidentally sort of proved that their games were always good enough that they didn't really need all that childish shit, and then instantly got savaged by manchild fans who couldn't handle being deprived of the very same fan service that had allowed Team Ninja to bilk them of their money for a decade. I mean, that irony is so delicious, it tastes like I imagine whipped cream would taste like, if you were allowed to eat it directly off of Tina's bust.

[09] Warrior

It's not my cup of tea either. Still back in the day as a kid I was a huge MK fanboy, also I mostly liked the lore and the characters, thinking about it, when it comes to gameplay, I was absolute trash at classic MK games, but I really didn't care or even notice it, since I never really played MK competitively. It was all about looking at cool stuff happening on the screen for me back then. I was half decent at MK4, I didn't like the roster or visuals as much as MK1-3, but I remember noticing I was enjoying MK4 gameplay more, which I understand is a controversial statement. MK: Gold (basically MK4: Ultimate Edition) was even better for putting more classic characters and stages back into the game. Than Deadly Alliance arrived and it was pure garbage. I gradually fell completely out of love with MK over the years after its release.